Requirements

Most presenters use PowerPoint.
We would like to be
able to support PowerPoint 2000, but are currently using PowerPoint 97 because
of critical design and usability
flaws in PowerPoint 2000

We need to support both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer

During a capture, it should be very easy to start up the encoder
and do the capture. We should have canned setting files and one click
start up. Going through a lot of dialog boxes will only cause problems.

Postproduction should be kept at a minimum. Ideally, we would
like to have the talks available the day after the presentation.
Ideally, we would be able to automatically generate HTML and PDF
output with out going through lots of dialog boxes for each talk.

The HTML page that the user sees should be very configurable
so that we can use the GSRC website look and feel.

'Publish to ASF' - generates an ASF file with still images
and audio only of the presenter.

'Windows Media Presenter' - sends messages over the net from the
presenter machine to an encoder machine and generates an ASF file
with URL scripts and audio and video of the presenter.

Locally, we have used Windows Media Presenter to capture talks.

Windows Media Presenter requires the NetShow 3.0 or 3.1 encoder or the Windows Media Player 4.1 Encoder,
and it can run under NT4.0 workstation or Windows 2000. We
have not tested any software under Windows 95 or 98, as those software
packages are not operating systems, they are toy single user single
tasking software packages from hell.

Windows Media 7.x and later will not work under NT

This application requires DirectX Media 6.0 or higher. Please install the
DirectX Media 6.0 or greater run-time from
www.microsoft.com/directx. Select Yes to continue and No to abort Setup.

When trying to install Windows Media Encoder 7:

Setup has detected an earlier version of the Windows Media Encoder
installed on your system.
Setup will leave the previous Encoder version installed on your system
but will upgrade the program links to reference Windows
Media Encoder v7

When trying to install Windows Media 7 Resource Kit Beta,
we get

Set up has detected that you are running an older operating system.
Windows Media Player 7 is supported on Windows 98 and Windows 2000

One potential issue is that documentation says that
under NT, the .asx file should have CRNL line termination.
However, when streaming from Apache under Solaris, the file
should have newlines only (use dos2unix to convert)

The primary differences between using Apache and Microsoft IIS with
the Netshow Server to
serve .asf files:

.asf files served from IIS/Netshow have the fast forward
and rewind buttons enabled

10.0.0.1 - The Encoder - IBM 600 on the dock, connected to the video
cameras

IBM 600 Laptop 300Mhz, 128Mb memory, 6 gig disk PN 2645-85U
Any good laptop with the PCI card (PCI card, not PCMCIA card)
expansion capability should work. We chose laptops for portability
reasons. Another way to do it would be to get a small powerful
PC and put a flatscreen monitor on it and put it in a flight case.

This model laptop is no longer sold, but a top of the line
IBM 600 with spare power supplies and batteries are about $4000 ea

When you install Windows Media Tools 4.1,
you will be prompted to install either the entire tool set
or just the PowerPoint Add-In. On the encoder machine,
do a complete installation.
On the presenter machine, you can install just
the PowerPoint Add-In.

Powerpoint 97 to do slide conversions and set up.
When installing Powerpoint 97, be sure to select
Web Page Authoring (HTML) so that you can convert
the slides.
Note that Powerpoint 97 is required, Powerpoint
2000 will not work here. Powerpoint 97 must be
installed on the presenter machine and usually is installed
on the encoder machine so that the slide conversion can occur.

PCAnywhere to control the presenter PC. (NOTE: pcAnywhere version 9.0 doesn't run on Windows 2000 and must be updated to version 9.2. To upgrade you may either download
the patch "921UP.EXE" and run the executable from within the pcAnywhere
directory or while online with a speedy connection select "Live Update" from
the pcAnywhere section of the Start Menu.

10.0.0.2 - The Presentation machine -
IBM 600 labtop, but could be anything.

A wireless mouse is useful. We use the logitech mouse.
See the Mouse page for details $50?

Also, provide the presenter with a laser pointer

The advantage of having
all the laptops be the same is that it makes it easier to provide
spares.
The user runs their slides from this machine.
The partitions on the presentation and monitor machines that contain
the slides should be available as shortcuts on the desktop.

Powerpoint 97 to display the slides

The Windows Media Tools 4.1 which includes the PowerPoint
presenter Add-in.
On the presenter machine, you can install just
the PowerPoint Add-In, you need not do a complete installation
of Windows Media Tools 4.01

The Windows Media Player 6.4

PCAnywhere so that another PC can control the Presentation machine

10.0.0.3 - The Monitor machine - IBM 600, again, could be anything.
Used to generate gifs from Powerpoint slides and to check
the broadcasts. Ideally, this machine is also set up
to do the encoding in case something happens to either
the encoder or the presentation machine. This machine should
also have the a local copy of the slides so that if the encoder
machine crashes, the slides are still available.

Powerpoint 97 to display the slides

Adobe Acrobat to convert the slides to pdf. (Note that this can
be done after the presentation).

The Windows Media Tools 4.1 which includes the Powerpoint
presenter plugin

Cygwin scripting tools
Currently, we are using version b20.1, which is a free download
There are two versions of Cygwin tools: The user version and the full version. The User version might work, but I would go with the full version,
disk space is cheap. The Full version includes make, but the User
version does not
Get the full versionftp://go.cygnus.com/pub/sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/cygwin-b20/full.exe Follow the instructions in readme.txt

Microsoft Windows NT, Office and IIS Web Server - Free to Universities,
probably costs less than $1k?
The IIS webserver is necessary, otherwise the ffwd/rew
buttons do not work.

2 copies PC Anywhere - $150 ea

Note that a complete set of spares should be available:

2 power supplies

2 PCMCIA network cards with cables

2 Floppy drives

Figure the total cost of hardware to be
$12k for three laptops + $1100 for dock and video card
Each machine has a gsrc account with a the same password, and the
environment is set up so that the common tools are quickly available
in the start menu to minimize fumbling. Also, each machine should be
set to start up the appropriate programs automatically.

We use the following network gear

1 4 port 100Mb hub $150

3 short Cat5 cables $75

1 100' Cat5 cable (to reach the podium) Wireless might work, but
it would be one more thing to go wrong. $100

We purchased a
CP-ITV-VC3
camera controller with a joy stick that can control 4 cameras.
The remote control is necessary because the IR remote does not work
if the camera is far away. $750

An alternative to the camera controller is to run a serial cable
from the far camera to the laptop and run camera controller software.
To do this, one will need a 100' db9 connector. We used a 100' cat 5 cable with two rj/db9 adapters $100

2 - Convertible Tripod (3021) Item # BO3021...98.95
Same construction as Model #3021S. It has a maximum shooting height of
71". The adjustable spread of the legs combined with telescoping
convertible center post lets you get as low as 101/4".

Lots and lots of batteries. Replace the wireless batteries
first every break. Replace everything first thing in the morning

Box of misc. audio adapters for RCA, 1/4", BNC, mini etc.

Duct tape or gaffer's tape for taping cables down

Small flashlights for looking into the back of the audio gear

Tool set (screwdrivers, wire strippers, needlenose pliers)

velcro cable ties for wrapping cables - Don't use wire twist
ties, it is a good way to blow up gear.

Lots of AC extension cords and power strips

Flight cases for gear. We did one show with two flight cases and a case for the audio. If the cases are less than 70lbs, they can be checked
on an airplane. Laptops, camera, and projectors should be hand carried.

One file per slide. It is best if
these are generated by Powerpoint before the talk starts
so that the talk can be viewed in realtime by the conversion and
checking laptop.
However, it is not required that these files be present at
recording time

How to set up the directory structure:

On the encoder machine, log in as the gsrc user and
check out the gigavaultwww CVS Repository

ACELP audio codec is a version of the Algebraic-Code-Excited Linear Prediction (ACELP) compression methodologies that have been optimized for use on Internet Protocol (IP) networks and the Intel Pentium platform. Using the ACELP net-adapted packetization method, it is able to minimize the impact of errors and significantly improve the error correction possibilities in case of data-packet loss. This codec uses frame concatenation and interlacing to more efficiently encode data. In Windows Media Encoder, ACELP.net can be used to compress audio to bandwidths ranging from 5 Kbps to 16 Kbps. This codec is most useful for encoding low bit-rate voice content.

Voice Codec: ACELP

Specially designed for compressing the human voice to produce high quality wide-band audio at very low bit rates.

Supports bit rates from 5 Kbps to 16 Kbps.

Developed by Sipro Lab Telecom.

BTW - one cool thing about the
Windows Media Audio V2 encoder is that the Windows Media Player does
have a spectral display tool under
View -> Settings -> Windows Media Audio Decoder.
This tool can be useful for debugging the audio levels

The Input tab of the properties field should look like

Live Source is checked

Custom in Audio Capture
should be set to
Winnov Videum Wave Record

Custom in Video Capture
should be set to
Winnov Video Capture

AVI/WAV/MP3 File is not checked

The Output tab of the properties field should look like

The To Netshow Server(s) over a network box should
be checked

The
Allow Remote Server(s) to connect via a fixed port
should be checked

MSBD on Port is checked by default. Usually this is
7007

HTTP on Port can be check, it does not seem to matter

Initiate connectino to a NetShow Station Manager
is not checked

The To a local ASF File should be checked
The file name is usually a file on the webserver, which
is in d:\\Inetpub\wwwroot.
Note that each talk should be in a separate directory.

Before the talk: Things to check

Make sure you have plenty of diskspace. Two days of talks usually
takes about 450Mb, figure 1Mb/minute for a 100kbps single bitrate stream.

Turn off presentation mode on the laptops so that the machines
will not blank their screens

Before the talk: Powerpoint Conversion

Note that if you are short on time, you can skip converting the slides
and do it after the talk. Converting while encoding has caused problems
in the past with the encoder, so you may want to avoid doing this.

On the presentation machine, or on another machine that has the
Powerpoint 97 Windows Media plugin,
for each talk, open the .pptfile
and then do Tools->Windows Media Presenter->Export Slides.
Typically, the Powerpoint file should be in the same directory
on the web server as the other files, which would be:
\\10.0.0.1\\wwwrootgsrc\\talks\\year\\city\\talknumber\\talknumber.ppt

The slides should be exported to a partition that is mounted on
the encoder machine. Typically, this would be
\\10.0.0.1\\wwwrootgsrc\\talks\\year\\city\\talknumber

Currently, we are exporting the slides as gifs so that they are not lossy.

We use the default settings for size: 480x360

Regina Pistilli writes

Occasionally, I have had problems with complex
slides exporting from PPT. Then I use SangIt on the slide that doesn't
export; delete all the info on the troubled slide in PPT and re-export;
finally replace the blank GIF with the SangIt file.

The standard size for GSRC and DAC is 480wide x 360 height GIFs.
We use GIFs instead of jpegs because GIFs are lossless. It would be
nice if we could export PNG

Each
talk should have a The Netshow Encoder File (.nse).
This file can be created ahead of time.
To create this file, start Powerpoint, go to
Tools->Windows Media Presenter->New Windows Media Encoder Settings File (Or, you can copy a .nse file from another page, and
change just the Base URL)
The dialog box should look like

Encoder: the name or IP address of the Encoder.
(10.0.0.1)

Base URL: "This is the URL for the location of the
slides on the IIS Server. The BaseURL is important because when
you move from slide to slide in the presentation, Windows Media Presenter
appends the name of each image to the URL, and then sends this URL
as a script command to the client"
We used to set Base URL to something like
http://10.0.0.1/gsrc/talks/2000/city/talknumber/talknumber (Note that the talknumber/talknumber
is repeated.)
However, this requires having the html page include
javascript that does not work very well under Netscape.
A better solution is to leave this blank, which will use
the current directory.

We export slides as gifs so that they are lossless, so
for Image Format:, select GIF

Ignore Errors from Netshow Encoder
should be checked

Connect to a running Netshow Encoder
should be checked

Reconfigure using ASD File
should be not be checked.
It is fairly easy to overwrite the .asf file from the
previous talk. So, each time the server is configured, we reconfigure
it with a new .asd file.

There should be a different .asd file
for each talk. Each .asd file should
have a separate output .asf file.
These files are generated using the encoder
on the presentation machine by using Save As.

The asd file is accessed remotely from the presentation
machine, so the file should be named something like
\\\\10.0.0.1\wwwgsrcroot\talks\2000\city\talknumber

Use this configuration with current slide show
should be checked

On the presentation machine,
go to
Tools->Windows Media Presenter->Presenter Settings
and enter in the path to the .nse file.
This might be:
\\10.0.0.1\\wwwrootgsrc\\talknumber\\talknumber.nse
Also, check the Use Netshow Encoder during the slide show
box. You might want to uncheck this if the author wants to test slides

Save the Powerpoint file

Right before the first talk

Replace batteries on wireless mouse, wireless mics, laser pointers

Check laser pointers

Start the video tape back up rolling.

Right before the talk

Watch the sound levels on the Mackey and the Videum Audio Mixer

Start up PowerPoint for the speaker, and open up their slides, which
should be in
\\10.0.0.1\wwwrootgsrc\talks\year\city

Go to
Tools->Windows Media Presenter->Presenter Settings
and select Use Windows Encoder during the slide showNote that even if you save the .ppt file with
this set, when you bring it up, it will not be set.

At the start of the talk

One person can operate the encoder, and one person can operate the presenter
via PCAnywhere

Stop, then exit the encoder from the previous talk

Copy the .asf from the previous talk to a safe place

On the encoder machine, start up the encoder by clicking
on the .asd file.

On the encoder machine, start up the encoder by pressing the
play button (small triangle, like a tape deck)

If possible, blank the projector so that the audience is not distracted by
the setup process on the presentation machine.

On the presenter machine via PCAnywhere, go to the powerpoint file
open it, goto
Tools->Windows Media Presenter->Presenter Settings
and select Use Windows Media Encoder during the slide show,
check the other settings, then wait until the encoder is
running and start the slide show with Alt-d-v.

During the talk

Watch the soundlevels on both the Mackey Mixer and the
Winnov Audio mixer. The Winnov vu meter on the should rarely reach
the red. Usually, each time the meter hits the red, then the audio
output of the encoded stream will click because of clipping.

You can monitor the talk via the web from a third machine.
The encoder will display two addresses like

msbd:///10.0.0.1:7007

http:///10.0.0.1:1041

Verify that the video tape deck is rolling

During a break or lunch

Back up the previous .asf files

Swap 9v batteries in the wireless mikes

Swap tapes in the tape deck

Set up for the next talk and start the encoder early - we have
had many problems starting the first talk, it is easier to cut out
10 minutes of kruft than it is to reboot at the last minute

At the GSRC Workshops, we occaisionally capture a dinner presentation.
Most dinner speakers use transparencies generated from Powerpoint files.
Often, the ppt file is only available after the presentation. To capture
these presentations, the trick is to create a large talk with 50 empty pages and
then follow along with the speaker and advance the slides on the presentation
machine.

The Dinner Capture setup consists of a subset of the regular setup - we use
only the encoder, the presentation machine and the wireless mic.

Use the ASF Indexer to truncate the start of the talk, and add
a Script Event for the first slide.
Under Windows Media Tools 7(?) use the ASF Indexer,
under Windows Media Player 9 Series, install the Encoder, and
use Start -> All Programs -> Windows Media -> Utilities ->
Windows Media File Editor

With ppt2k and Netscape 4.7, do not use dhtml - it will not work with Netscape

The 'save as' option under ppt2k is somewhat broken.

There is a menu choice to save as html in a format that is compatible
with Netscape 3.0 and later. This menu choice produces dhtml that
does not work with Netscape 4.7, in particular, the slides look like
hell, the GSRC logo at the top is present twice, and there are other
problems.

then you need to verify that /bin/sh.exe exists in your current directory structure. If it does not then you will need to do the following which is basically copying bash.exe into /bin and renaming it sh.exe:

In Netscape, if you type in
javascript:
into the Location entry widget at the top, then you will be
able to view any javascript errors.

If you right click on the video widget, there should be an
errors menu choice that will show you errors like the URL that the video
widget was trying to open

After installing Netshow 3.0, then 4.0 and then downgrading to 3.0,
we were not able to run the MPEG-4 encoder, the error message was
Video compressor failed to start. This message comes from
/Program Files/NetShow Services/Tools/NsRex.exe.
The problem was that /WINNT/System32/mpg4c32.dll
was updated with the 4.0 installation. The fix was to copy that
file from a 3.0 installation.

When I watch a presentation on a 760XD, the video is blurry.
This is a know problem with some video drivers.
The fix is to start up the Windows Media Player and go to
File>Properties>Advanced, and then
select Video Renderer in Filters in use
and hit Properties.
In the Filter Properties window, select the
DirectDraw tab and then unselect YUV Flipping

The user needs to go to
Tools->Windows Media Presenter->Presenter Settings
and select Use Netshow Encoder during the slide show
We should figure out a way to avoid this, PC Anywhere helps here.

What happens if the URLS to the slides need to be moved?

The problem is that when we recorded the GSRC April 99 offsite
with the Powerpoint 97 plugin, we used an absolute URL to encode the
slides. We did this so that we could view the asf as the talk was
being recorded to be sure that everything was working.

We thought that we would be able to change the URLs later, but the
problem is that the script commands that do the URL flips are encoded
in the stream, and the Windows Media Tools ASF Indexer associated with
older versions of Windows Media does not operate on the stream,
instead it operates on script commands at the front of the file.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to get at these commands

The fix was to use scripting events to catch the slide flips and
rewrite them. The way this is done is that the javascript code
has a regular expression that matches the bad URL and substitutes
in a new, correct URL.

Sometimes, one asf file will have incorrect urls. For example
10.asf and 11.asf might both refer to gifs in the same directory,
even though these are different talks. The fix is to modify
the IE and Netscape javascript files for one of the talks so
that the proper URL is substituted in.

If the primary encoder fails and you are working from the backup
encoder or a video tape, then the asf stream will not have any slide flips
at all.

If this is the case, then you need to play the problem .asf file
and write down the times of each slide flip. Then add these
to the asf file using the Windows Media ASF Indexer found at
(Start -> Program -> Windows Media -> Windows Media ASF Indexer)
Under Windows Media Tools 7(?) use the ASF Indexer,
under Windows Media Player 9 Series, install the Encoder, and
use Start -> All Programs -> Windows Media -> Utilities ->
Windows Media File Editor

Windows Media ASF Indexer instructions

Start up the Windows Media ASF Indexer or the

Open an existing .asf file that has the proper slide flips.
(Starting from an existing file makes it easier to get the format
right)

Export the script file for the working asf file with
File->Export Script File

Edit that file and add your slide flips for the problem
asf file. You may want to change the Title etc.

Open up the problem .asf file

Import the script file with File -> Import from Script file

Play the .asf file and be sure that the flips happen after
the presenter presses the button. Note that there can be timing
issues around the key frames and the delays.

During the capture, the encoder records the slide flips
as events in the body of the file.
To operate on the script events, the events have to be moved
from the body of the asf file to the header.
Move the Script to the header:
File -?> Move Scripts to Header

Part of moving the scripts to the header requires that
you save the file

Export the header: File -> Export header file

The resulting header file has double wide characters,
so don't open it with Emacs, open it with Notepad and
substitute the proper urls. Inside Notepad, I did

Unfortunately, there is a bug. Even though the header
file has <RemoveAllMarkers /> <RemoveAllScripts</>
the previous script flips remain. The fix is to
hit the Script Commands button and remove the
old http://10.0.0.1 script events

Save the file

Copy it back up to the server - be sure to save the old
file on the server

If you try to play back a .asf file, and you get an unknown
error in the Windows Media Player, then try upgrading the Windows Media Player

The Nady mics eat batteries - replace them in the morning, at the
morning break, at lunch, at the afternoon break.

The Windows Media Audio V2 encoder does not sound good with
voice, use the ACELP encoder instead.

If the .ppt file is large then you may want to copy it
from the encoder machine to the presenter laptop so that the start up
time is faster.

The problem is that Under Mozilla 1.1/Netscape 7, the slides
in the video do not flip.

Under Netscape 4.x, we use the NPDS.npDSEvtObsProxy
applet to register a call back so that each time we get a slide
flip in the stream, we can adjust the URL.

Initially, the problem was that a message about
obsApp not being inited showed up in the status area.
One fix to this was to copy
c:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/npds.zip
to
c:/Program Files/java/j2re1.4.1/lib/ext/npds.zip
However, npds.zip extends
netscape.plugin.Plugin, which
is part of LiveConnect, which is present in Netscape4.x,
but not Netscape 6,7 or Mozilla 1.1, so this fix
does not really solve the problem.